Today, the AP published an article about the case of Jaycee Dugard and captives bonding with their captors.

Photo of Jaycee Dugard before her abduction at age eleven

Twenty-eight-yr-old Jaycee was held captive by convicted sexual predator Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy, 54, for 18 years after Jaycee was snatched off a street in California when she was eleven. During her years of captivity Jaycee lived in the Garrido’s backyard in tents and sheds purportedly hidden from the neighbors. Jaycee was repeatedly raped by Garrido and had two daughters, now ages 11 and 15.

Phillip Garrido

The AP article, Bonding with a Captor: Why Jaycee Dugard Didn’t Flee cited people questioning why Jaycee didn’t attempt to escape sooner. In attempting to answer this bewildering fact, the article referenced the Stockholm Syndrome, where kidnapping and hostage victims come to “sympathize” with their captors. We’ve found that it’s not only the victims who “sympathize” with their sexual captors. The state of California’s handling of Jaycee’s captor, Phillip Garrido, previous to Jaycee’s abduction, and another California case, Kenneth Parnell, highlight California’s pattern of “sympathetic” treatment towards sexual predators who kidnap their child victims. Patterns that include criminal sentences that, in the cases of both Garrido and Parnell, allowed the two sexual predators to serve extremely short sentences then, when released, strike again and again against the most vulnerable in our society, little children.

In 1977, during his rape and kidnapping trial in Reno, Nevada, Phillip Garrido admitted he “prowled through neighborhoods” as a “Peeping Tom”, fantasized about raping his targets, “leered” at girls as young as “seven and ten”, and admitted he exposed himself to them. He also admitted that he masturbated while sitting in his car next to “grammar schools” and “high schools” while “watching young females”.

During his trial, Garrido admitted he kidnapped and raped his victim, then 25-yr-old Katie Callaway Hall. On November, 1976, Garrido tapped on Hall’s car window and asked Katie for a ride at a supermarket. Garrido handcuffed and bound Katie then took her to a mini-storage unit in Reno. Over a period of five hours, Garrido repeatedly raped Katie, who believed Garrido was going to kill her. At 3 am, a police officer noticed the building was lit and pounded on the door. When Garrido went to the door, Katie made her break and ran outside naked. Garrido told the cop Katie was his girlfriend. Katie cried out, “No, I’m not. Help me, help me!” It wasn’t until the cop shone his flashlight on Katie’s wrists and saw the marks left from her being handcuffed that the cop arrested Garrido.

Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 50 years for the crimes he committed against Katie. He served 10 years in Kansas’ Federal Leavenworth Prison before being granted parole for his kidnapping conviction, then served seven months in a Nevada prison for the rape conviction. Garrido was then released. Less than three years later he and his wife kidnapped 11-yr-old Jaycee.

When Jaycee was finally freed from Garrido, Garrido was a California registered sex offender who, as a parolee, wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his every movement and was subject to routine surprise home visits and random drug and alcohol tests. Three years ago a neighbor contacted the Costa County Sheriff’s Department claiming that Garrido had a “backyard encampment” and that “children” were living in tents. The Sheriff’s deputy who responded was unaware that Garrido was a registered sex offender. The deputy didn’t inspect Garrido’s backyard.

As bizarre as the Jaycee Dugard case is, there’s another California child kidnap case that highlights the “sympathy” factor the state has to dangerous sexual predators. In this case, there were multiple child victims while the sexual predator, like Garrido, received sentences that were both laughable, insanely shortsighted, and highlighted a callous attitude to the victims who, in Kenneth Parnell’s case, were small children.

On January 22, 2008, 76-yr-old convicted sex offender Kenneth Parnell died of natural causes at California’s Vacaville State Prison. Parnell was sent to California prisons three times. The last prison stint began in 2004 when the then 71-yr-old Parnell attempted to “buy” a four-yr-old boy.

Parnell was first convicted in 1952 after being convicted of sodomizing an 8-yr-old boy in Bakersfield and impersonating a police officer. Parnell served three years.

Kenneth Parnell Posing with Captive boy, Steven Stayner

In 1972, Parnell kidnapped 7-yr-old Steven Stayner in Merced, California. Parnell allegedly “showered” Steven with gifts and told the little boy that his parents could no longer afford him. In reality, Parnell molested the little boy at night and then claimed Steven was his son during the day.

Eight years later, in 1981, Parnell abducted five-year-old Timmy White of Ukiah. Two weeks later, 15-yr-old Steven escaped from Parnell’s clutches and took Timmy with him. Together, the two hitchhiked 40 miles to Ukiah to the police station. Steven told the authorities that Parnell had molested him and that he didn’t want Timmy to suffer the same fate. Parnell was arrested, then later convicted of kidnap charges. Parnell wasn’t charged with any sexual charges because the charges would have meant serving the “same amount of time”. In an article in TIME, TIME wrote that Steven was pedophile Parnell’s “sex slave”.

Parnell’s sentence for kidnapping two young boys and keeping one captive for 8 years: seven years. Parnell served five before he was released by the state of California. Parnell was never tried for sexually molesting Steven even though he had a prior conviction of sodomizing an 8-yr-old boy.

In January of 2003, Parnell was arrested, the result of a “sting operation” after Parnell’s caregiver told authorities Parnell was trying to coerce her into “buying” a four-year-old boy. Due to California’s “Three Strikes” law, Parnell was sentenced to life in prison in April, 2004.

All told Parnell served 12 years for sodomizing an 8-yr-old boy, kidnapping a 7-yr-old boy and holding him captive for 8 years, kidnapping a 5-yr-old boy, and attempting to “buy” a four-year-old boy.

Like Jaycee Dugard, 7-yr-old Steven Stayner was kidnapped on his way to school. The NBC mini-series, “I Know My First Name is Steven” was based on Steven’s story. Steven was killed in a hit-and run motorcycle accident in 1989, leaving behind a wife and two children. In 2007, it was announced that the city of Merced had granted permission to build a Steven Stayner Memorial.

Even more tragic was the Stayner family. The man who viciously kidnapped a little boy, turning the little boy’s family life into a maelstrom of the unknown for eight long years, was sentenced to less than the amount of time Steven spent as pedophile sex slave captive beginning at the tender age of seven.

Steven’s older brother Cary was 11 when Steven was abducted. In 1991, Cary attempted suicide and was arrested in 1997 for possession of pot and methamphetamine. In 1994, Cary admitted he’d murdered four women.

The Yosemite Killer

Yosemite Killer, 37-yr-old Cary Stayner

Ten years after Steven’s death on February 16, 1999, three tourists, 42-yr-old Carole Sund, 15-yr-old daughter Julie from Eureka, California, and family friend, 16-yr-old Silvina Pelosso from Argentina, disappeared while staying at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal located near Yosemite National Park.

On February 16, the Sunds and Pelosso were due to meet Jens Sund, Carole Sund’s husband and Juli’s father at the San Francisco airport for a scheduled trip to Arizona. When the three failed to show, Sund believed they’d flown ahead. Sund then flew to Arizona where, the next day, he played a round of golf then contacted the authorities after failing to hear from his wife. Late on March 18, a local resident discovered Sund’s “burned out” rental car in Stanislaus Forest, a 900,000 acre National Forest bordering the northwest boundary of Yosemite National Park. The red 1999 Pontiac was found hidden off Highway 108 in Tuolumne County. The location was three hours by car from El Portal. After the California Highway Patrol confirmed the license plate as belonging to Carol Sund’s rented vehicle, FBI agents arrived on the 19th. Upon opening the trunk, agents discovered two charred corpses. On March 22, authorities revealed the two bodies were Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso. Still unknown, the fate of 15-yr-old Julie Sund.

On March 15, a badly decomposed body was discovered near Lake Don Pedro in Tuolumme County, fifty yards from Highway 120 and forty miles from where Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso’s bodies were discovered. The next day authorities confirmed the body found near Lake Don Pedro was Julie Sund and that her throat had been cut. Julie was positively identified through dental records.

Joie Armstrong

On July 22, the body of 26-yr-old naturalist Joie Armstrong was discovered near the cabin she shared with her boyfriend in Foresta, a tiny town located just inside Yosemite Park and only 4 miles from El Portal.

Thirty-seven-yr-old Cary Stayner, the handyman employed by the El Portal Cedar Lodge had been initially questioned after Carol, Julie, and Silvina had been reported missing. Stayner was once again questioned after Joie Armstrong’s body was discovered. FBI agents detained Stayner, searched his truck and confiscated his backpack. Stayner was then allowed to leave with the warning to stay in the El Portal area. Agents then searched Stayner’s apartment at Cedar Lodge where enough evidence was gathered in order to arrest Stayner. Stayner was then located at a local nudist colony that he frequented. According to FBI agent Jeff Rinek, Stayner claimed he was sexually abused at age 11 and that he would confess if he could be housed in a federal penitentiary near his home town, his parents received the reward money put up by the victim’s families and that he be supplied with a “good-sized” stack of photographs and videotapes of child pornography.

According to FBI Agent Jeff Rinek, Cary Stayner claimed this was the first time he’d confessed that he’d been sexually abused as a child. Stayner claimed that he’d “spied” Carole, Julie, and Silvina watching television in their lodge room. Stayner stated that he hadn’t seen a man so he knew the three were “vulnerable”. “Easy prey”. What’s interesting to note is that, prior to Stayner’s arrest he had a clean record regarding violent crime and that authorities eventually charged him with the two women and two teen girl’s deaths. Yet Stayner’s remark, of the women being “easy prey” seems to denote Stayner having experience in earlier, similar crimes. Stayner stated that when he knocked on the door and told Carole Sund there was a problem with a water leak, Carole “didn’t want to let him in” until he told her he’d get the manager. Stayner claimed he killed Carole Sund then sexually molested the two girls before he murdered them. Stayner admitted he tried to abduct Joie Armstrong but cut her throat, then decapitated her when she tried to escape. Despite his confession, on August 7, 1999, Stayner plead not guilty to the murder of Joie Armstrong at his arraignment while authorities continued to investigate the other three murders. Stayner claimed he confessed in order to “get off” from “other charges” and that authorities “should have known” he was lying. On September 14, Stayner plead guilty to kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and murdering Armstrong in exchange for a life sentence. On October 21, 1999, Stayner was officially charged with the murders of Carole and Julie Sund and Silvina Pelosso.

Initially Stayner claimed he was innocent, Stayner later switched his defense to guilty by reason of insanity due to mental illness. On August 22, 2002, Stayner was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Carole and Julie Sund and Silvina Pelosso. Stayner claimed that he had been sexually abused as a child, traumatized over his brother Steven’s abduction, and had “voices” inside his head that ordered him to kill. On December 14, 2002, Cary Stayner was sentenced to death.

According to information summarized and released by the Department of Psychology at Ratford University, Cary Stayner began fantasizing about kidnapping and murdering women at age seven, the same age his little brother Steven was abducted.

At age eleven, Cary Stayner imagined his mother was kidnapped. He also claimed he was sexually abused by his uncle, Jesse Stayner. Jesse Stayner was convicted of child molestation but not in molesting Cary. By age 12 or 13, Stayner fantasized women being marched “naked” and “gang-raped”.

On December 26, 1990, Jesse Stayner was found shot dead in the home he shared with Cary. Authorities theorize Cary murdered his uncle but claim they failed to gather enough evidence to support a conviction.

On Friday, authorities searched Phillip Garrido’s home looking for evidence in the unsolved murders of several prostitutes. The exact number unknown, the slain prostitutes bodies were dumped near an Industrial Park where Garrido worked in the 1990’s. Garrido and his wife Nancy plead not guilty on August 28, to a total of 29 felony counts, including forcible abduction, rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment in connection with the abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991. The two were ordered to be held without bond.

By LBG

Source - MSNBC – Cops: Kidnap suspect eyed for murder links
Source – NYTimes – National News Briefs; Man Pleads Guilty In Yosemite Slaying
Source – NYTimes – Suspect in Yosemite Murder Pleads Not Guilty
Source - SFGate – Little Boy Lost
Image – Cary Stayner

Source – History.com – Yosemite Killer Cary Stayner
Image – Joie Armstrong
Images- Carole Sund, Julie Sund, Silvina Pelosso
Source – TruTv.com – Cary Stayner
Image – Kenneth Parnell and Steven Stayner
Image – Revolving Prison Doors

Source – Cary Stayner – TruTv.com
Source – Wikipedia- Kenneth Parnell
Source – Phillip Garrido - AOL.com
Source – SFGate.com – Kenneth Parnell, kidnapper of Steven Stayner, dies at 76